d r a f t Kevin Kilbane, Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend Their presence drew the first Europeans to what is now northern Indiana. They played roles in the founding and growth of parishes and institutions such as what became the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College. They held strong in their faith … Continue reading Early Catholic missions to Potawatomi people in northern Indiana, southern Michigan — misc. references
Primary sources on Potawatomi Trail of Death in central Illinois, Sept.-Oct. 1838
Memorial at Fulton County Courthouse, Rochester, Ind. (Chris Light, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0). In September and October 1838, a band of Potawatomi Indians from northern Indiana crossed central Illinois under an armed guard of Indiana state militia. Their forced removal was known as the Potawatomi Trail of Death, and it was part of the Indian … Continue reading Primary sources on Potawatomi Trail of Death in central Illinois, Sept.-Oct. 1838
‘Waiting for the spark’: Christian authors prepare to resist Jim Crow (Señor Cuervo?), Trump’s incipient fascism
Kristin Du Mez CONNECTIONS, Substack ['about' page]. For the past eight to 10 months, I've drawn comfort and inspsiration, in the root sense of the word, from a podcast featuring historian Kristin Du Mez of Calvin University and three other scholars of religion. They collaborate on a (more-or-less) weekly podcast called the Convocation Unscripted, where … Continue reading ‘Waiting for the spark’: Christian authors prepare to resist Jim Crow (Señor Cuervo?), Trump’s incipient fascism
You think a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich? Baloney! Here’s reason to hope Anglo-American law can survive Trump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATrOEdcu230 Chris Hayes, 'All In with Chris Hayes,' Aug. 27, 2025, MSNBC. NO Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised [unlawfully dispossessed] of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful … Continue reading You think a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich? Baloney! Here’s reason to hope Anglo-American law can survive Trump
Finding a sliver of hope in Trump’s porn star hush money verdict, Magna Carta and a 13th-century Latin pun: ‘Where there is no law (lex) there is no king (rex)’
Quotation from my PhD dissertation, UT-Knoxville, March 1975. A moment I've been anticipating for nearly a decade arrived today. Not only that, it also reaffirmed a faith I've had for 50 years. The moment came about 3:30 p.m. (CDT) when a criminal court jury in New York City convicted ex-President Donald Trump on 34 counts of … Continue reading Finding a sliver of hope in Trump’s porn star hush money verdict, Magna Carta and a 13th-century Latin pun: ‘Where there is no law (lex) there is no king (rex)’
Sundays@6 — Of ‘Caste,’ race, anti-Semitism, a German memorial at Bergen-Belsen and the (white) church’s complicity in American racism (week 7)
Mass grave at Bergen-Belsen camp. Inscription says, "Here rest 1,000 dead, April 1945."Memorial stones are placed on monument in observance of Jewish tradition (note Israeli flag). Lightly edited copy of a blast email Debi and I sent out to members of our congregation, Peace Lutheran Church of Springfield, in advance of the seventh meeting an … Continue reading Sundays@6 — Of ‘Caste,’ race, anti-Semitism, a German memorial at Bergen-Belsen and the (white) church’s complicity in American racism (week 7)
Sundays@6, week 4: Of ‘Caste,’ alpha wolves, underdogs and intersectionality
Lightly edited copy of a blast email Debi and I sent out to members of our congregation, Peace Lutheran Church of Springfield, in advance of the fourth meeting an adult faith formation discussion of the book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson. We call the group Sundays@6, and it meets over Zoom … Continue reading Sundays@6, week 4: Of ‘Caste,’ alpha wolves, underdogs and intersectionality
Richard Marius: Notes & quotes
d r a f t More information on Martin Luther biographer Richard Marius, whom I knew at UT-Knoxville and mentioned in passing in my Nov. 11 post on Martin Luther's concept of the indwelling of Christ. I'm rereading his 1973 biography Luther and wrote: One of my professors at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Richard … Continue reading Richard Marius: Notes & quotes
Historians, including Ken Burns, cite historical parallels between today, the slavery crisis of the 1850s and the anti-Semitism of the 1930s
d r a f t More quotes for my Swedes in Roger Williams’ Garden project — Two disturbing historical parallels in print this week, both suggesting that America faces a more difficult crisis -- more accurately a series of cascading crises -- now than it did in the runup to the Civil War. It's hard to know … Continue reading Historians, including Ken Burns, cite historical parallels between today, the slavery crisis of the 1850s and the anti-Semitism of the 1930s
Research notes: Cite for Rushdie’s creolization quote; right-wing dog whistle du jour featuring assault on Rushdie
Two very different items popped up last night when I did a Google search on keywords Salman Rushdie and creolization. They are: A 2001 article on "Creolization and the Lessons of a Watergoddess in the Black Atlantic" by Alex van Stipriaan that cites a Rushdie quote: "Mélange, hotchpotch, a bit of this and a bit … Continue reading Research notes: Cite for Rushdie’s creolization quote; right-wing dog whistle du jour featuring assault on Rushdie
Sounding the alarm on CNN in Trump’s America: ‘Two inimical factions’ split along ‘racial and religious lines’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS2trMvo4aM Most of the time, CNN's weekend anchor Jim Acosta makes me break out in hives. I saw enough of his brand of performative journalism to last me a lifetime a long time ago, when the bigfoot TV reporters from Chicago would descend on the Illinois Statehouse at the end of the legislative session. But … Continue reading Sounding the alarm on CNN in Trump’s America: ‘Two inimical factions’ split along ‘racial and religious lines’
Archipelagos? Can a French postcolonial novelist’s creole metaphor help us head off a new Civil War?
Battle of Fort Sanders, Knoxville, Nov. 29, 1863. Wikimedia Commons) “The past is never dead. It's not even past.” ― William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun "[...] le monde entier s’archipélise et se créolise." Édouard Glissant Traité du Tout-Monde My inner child was an English major, but before that he majored in history. In fact, he got … Continue reading Archipelagos? Can a French postcolonial novelist’s creole metaphor help us head off a new Civil War?
Creolization: Jingoism v. jambalaya in France (with excerpts from my historical papers on the subject)
France 24, Feb. 15, 2022 Voilà! Turns out an obscure academic term I use in my historical writing got to be a political talking point in this year's French elections. The word is "creolization" (créolisation in French), and it's used by cultural anthropologists to describe the cultural blending in creole societies like those of the … Continue reading Creolization: Jingoism v. jambalaya in France (with excerpts from my historical papers on the subject)
Research notes: Salman Rushdie, post-colonial theory, creolization and me
Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rushdie.JPG A grab bag of short takes ... I also have a chaotic and unedited collection of "Notes and Quotes" -- my term for research notes -- on the postcolonialist author Salman Rushdie, who was recently stabbed by an Iranian-American youth, and some of the themes raised by his fiction -- and … Continue reading Research notes: Salman Rushdie, post-colonial theory, creolization and me
‘Conviviality at the Crossroads’: Open-source studies from Malmö on creolization, hybridity, etc.
Link here to open-source copy on Springer Nature Switzerland AG website Woo hoo! I found a new book. It's available online under a Creative Commons license, and finding it was like Christmas in July -- with Easter, St. Paddy's and the annual Jordbruksdagarna (ag days) festival at Bishop Hill, Illinois, all rolled into one. Forgive … Continue reading ‘Conviviality at the Crossroads’: Open-source studies from Malmö on creolization, hybridity, etc.
Historians say Alito’s ‘law office history’ cherry-picks the historical record, creates bad history and worse law
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLMp-1NdzR8 Cold open, Saturday Night Live, May 7, 2022 “It was all Mrs. Bumble. She would do it," urged Mr. Bumble; first looking round, to ascertain that his partner had left the room.That is no excuse," returned Mr. Brownlow. "You were present on the occasion of the destruction of these trinkets, and, indeed, are the more guilty … Continue reading Historians say Alito’s ‘law office history’ cherry-picks the historical record, creates bad history and worse law
Of the Trumpification of the Supreme Court, red-state abortion laws and a Civil War battlefield in Knoxville
Kurtz & Allison lithograph, 1891 (retouched Adam Cuerdon. Wikimedia Commons) For several years as a grad student at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, I lived on the site of a Civil War battlefield. My apartment was in a Victorian mansion that had been cut up into private-sector off-campus student housing (and has now been retrofitted … Continue reading Of the Trumpification of the Supreme Court, red-state abortion laws and a Civil War battlefield in Knoxville
Édouard Glissant and creolization — misc. links (Notes & Quotes)
d r a f t "[...] we are all in relation with each other and we all have a chance of making our voices heard." -- Celia Britton, "Edouard Glissant" [obit], The Guardian. xxx Poetics of Space – Archipelagos and Wanderings special ed. of Karib: Nordic Journal for Caribbean Studies https://www.karib.no/collections/special/poetics-of-space-archipelagos-and-wanderings/ Collection launched: 25 Feb … Continue reading Édouard Glissant and creolization — misc. links (Notes & Quotes)
Olof Krans: ‘Wizard with a brush’ at Swedish-American colony in Bishop Hill
Swedish postage stamp features Krans at right (https://czeslawslania.org/sw1986/). Three paintings by Olof Krans have been donated by the Merle and Barbra Glick estate to the Bishop Hill State Historic Site, in Henry County near the Quad-Cities. Merle Glick, who was active in numerous civic and community institutions in the Peoria area including the Peoria Riverfront … Continue reading Olof Krans: ‘Wizard with a brush’ at Swedish-American colony in Bishop Hill
Op ed piece argues worrisome trend in Supreme Court decisions undermining the separation of church and state
A professor of intellectual history at Georgia State has an op ed piece on today's Washington Post website outlining how, and why, the US Supreme Court erected a wall of separation between church and state in the mid- to late 20th century -- and how he fears the extreme right-wing majority on today's court is … Continue reading Op ed piece argues worrisome trend in Supreme Court decisions undermining the separation of church and state
Notes & quotes: Catherine Brekus of Harvard Divinity on US symbols, ‘city on a hill,’ narratives, Trump, Jan. 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6byirhkFiM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6byirhkFiM Editor's (admin's) note. Embedded video features an hour-long panel discussion at Harvard Divinity School by James Kloppenberg of Harvard and E.J. Dionne of Georgetown University, moderated by Catherine Brekus. Catherine Brekus of Harvard Divinity School, who teaches a survey of American religious history, explored several topics crucial to my research on Swedish immigrant … Continue reading Notes & quotes: Catherine Brekus of Harvard Divinity on US symbols, ‘city on a hill,’ narratives, Trump, Jan. 6
Ordinary Time 
